An Archaeologist Is On A Mission To Preserve Sudan’s Art And Heritage Amid War

The war in Sudan started in 2023. Two regional museums in El Geneina and Nyala were almost destroyed. The National Museum in Khartoum, which held over 100,000 objects before the war, was ransacked by militias.

Sudanese archaeologist Shadia Abdrabo is on a mission to preserve Sudan’s art and heritage during war.

Abdrabo, curator from Sudan’s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM), is working on a yearlong research grant in France to build an online database of Sudan’s archaeological sites, museum collections, and historical archives, the Associated Press reported.

The war in Sudan started in 2023, and museums were looted or destroyed. It’s unclear precisely what’s missing, and now Abdrabo is in a race against time to find out.

“We have to work fast to secure our collections. We’ve already lost two museums, and we don’t want to lose more,” she told the publication.

Two regional museums, in El Geneina and Nyala, were almost destroyed. The National Museum in Khartoum, which held over 100,000 objects before the war, was ransacked by militias. The museum housed some of Sudan’s most precious artifacts, including pieces dating back to prehistoric times. Some of these civilizations include the Kerma Kingdom and the Napatan era, when Kushite kings ruled the region, and the Merotic civilization, which built Sudan’s pyramids.

Some of the most valuable items were mummies dating back to 2,500 B.C., which are reportedly among the oldest and most significant archaeologically in the world, along with Kushite treasures.

The Start of Sudan’s Civil War

The current war in Sudan stems from a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) generals. In 2019, the army mounted a coup to get rid of long-serving President Omar al-Bashir, who came to power in a coup in 1989.

A joint military-civilian government was established, but that was overthrown in another coup in October 2021, led by two men: Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s president and head of the armed forces, and his deputy, RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo.

Both men reportedly disagreed on the direction of the country, and shooting between the two sides began on April 15, 2023.

More than 12 million people have fled their homes, and tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict, but these numbers are uncertain.

“From severe droughts to deadly floods, the compounded effects of conflict and environmental instability are pushing communities to the brink, leaving them struggling to survive,” according to the United Nations. “Famine has already been declared in some parts of the country, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis and putting millions of lives at immediate risk.”